


Disgraced Shinobi

by cabbageboy



Category: She-Ra and the Princesses of Power (2018)
Genre: Angst, Angst with a Happy Ending, F/F, F/M, M/M, Multi
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-24
Updated: 2020-08-24
Packaged: 2021-03-06 19:34:08
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,592
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26074234
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/cabbageboy/pseuds/cabbageboy
Summary: When Adora is promoted from genin to chunin she is given her first real mission as squad leader outside of the Horde's village. Its just a C ranked recon mission to gather intel about the rival villages and the Rebellion that had been terrorizing them. She thinks she is prepared. Little does she know, her squad is about to face an important decision, one that will change their lives forever.Grab your shurikens and your Naruto headbands, this is the Naruto AU that I willed into existence.
Relationships: Adora/Catra (She-Ra), Kyle/Lonnie/Rogelio (She-Ra)
Comments: 5
Kudos: 29





	Disgraced Shinobi

**Author's Note:**

> This started as a Naruto AU and quickly turned into whatever I wanted to write with very little to do with Naruto.

Adora looked from her perch over the village. It was dusk, the red moon glowing dimly over the landscape as darkness began to spread before her, as far as the eye could see. She closed her eyes and took a deep breath, taking in the smell of sulfurous gasses from the machinery surrounding her and trying to calm her mind in preparation for the following days. Tomorrow she would take her team out on a mission, her first as squad leader. Having just passed her exams she now held the title of chunin, the rest of her squad remaining as genin until the next proctored exam would allow them the opportunity to try again for a promotion. 

Shadow Weaver, their Kage’s most trusted advisor, had given her the file containing her assignment. She was tasked with a C ranked recon mission into the Whispering Woods to gain intel on the rebellion building in some of the rivaling villages, the closest of which was Brightmoon. It wasn’t supposed to get violent, and she had orders to retreat at the first sign of attack, but it was still nerve wracking to be taking her closest comrades out into enemy territory. The Horde had been fighting to better the citizens of Etheria for decades and she was determined, now that she was gaining rank, to help in any way she could to turn the tide of the war and ensure their victory so they could spread their good will to the rest of the villages being held captive by their oppressive governments.

“Hey, Adora,” She heard a familiar voice behind her and her lips turned up at the ends to an almost smile as she allowed her eyes to drift open. She took in the distant landscape, now much more dim as nightfall set in, before turning around and facing her closest friend, Catra.

“Hey Catra,” She spoke, trying to steady her voice. She gazed at her friend with upturned brows and a softness in her eyes that she only showed when the two were alone together atop the highest platforms in the village. 

“You’re nervous about tomorrow?” Catra always knew her better than anyone. She anticipated teasing, for Catra to say that she should be confident now that she was finally chunin. But the teasing never came.

“It will be ok. It’s a recon mission after all. We keep stealth on our side, get the intell, and move out. Nothing is going to happen,” She said, stepping close enough to place a comforting hand on Adora’s shoulder. The warmth she felt radiating through her shirt at the contact spread like a wildfire, her cheeks erupting in a blush. They’d been friends for as long as she could remember. Of course she knew how to calm her nerves. Of course she knew how important this mission was to her and how worried she was to be leaving the village for the first time. The briefings didn’t help to soothe her worried mind, they only reiterated how little they knew about the enemy.

“I know. It's just…. For as long as I can remember this was the next step. Becoming chunin, leading missions. I just don’t want to disappoint anyone,” Adora’s voice was a whisper now.

“You mean you’re afraid of what Shadow Weaver will do if our mission fails?” Catra spits out, venom in her voice. 

“I…. No that's not….,” Adora stammers, unwilling to break the illusion she thought she had constructed perfectly. She didn’t trust Shadow Weaver, not fully, not after all she had seen her do to Catra. She’s used her genjutsu to punish her friend since they were children. She had never seen it happen and Catra had never talked about it, but when Catra returned form Shadow Weaver’s office she seemed a little more withdrawn into her own head each time. Some instances were worse than others. Sometimes she would storm into the dorms or the mess hall ranting about how unfair her punishment was, while others she would shuffle in with a far-away look in her eyes, arms wrapped around herself protectively. Adora knew by the lack of physical signs of abuse that it had to be genjutsu, plus she knew the rumors that Shadow Weaver’s kekkei genkai was a powerful genjutsu. She was never the one being punished by Shadow Weaver, not really. She had been blamed, with brief sighs of disappointment followed by a breathy tone saying, “If only you kept a better handle on her behavior. Go to the dorm while I deal with this mistake.” Adora never knew if she was referring to Catra’s actions as the mistake, or Catra herself. She had an idea, but she didn’t think she wanted to know for sure.

Adora shook her head to relieve herself from the memories. She looked at Catra, who now had an eyebrow raised in concern at her friend’s sudden withdrawal into herself.

“That’s exactly what you’re worried about,” Catra knew. She always knew.

“What if we fail? What if I fail? She won’t punish me, she never does. She’ll say you distracted me. She’ll hurt you more now. She won’t treat it like a mistake during a training exercise because this is a real mission with a real effect on the outcome of the war. She’ll hurt you so much worse,” Adora had tears running down her face, shoulders shaking and breath coming out in gasps. 

“She won’t be able to do anything to me, because you won’t fail. We won’t fail. You’ll lead us into this mission and we will all come out fine,” Catra had both hands on Adora’s shoulders now, squeezing gently and grounding her friend through her panic.

“Yeah. You’re right. She can’t hurt you if we don’t fail,” Adora nodded, wiping the tears from her face and rolling her shoulders to try to relieve some of the tension.

“Remember? Nothing really bad can happen as long as we have each other,” Adora was smiling now, the skin at the corners of her eyes crinkling from the force of the smile.

“Promise?” Catra smirked

“Promise,” Adora was smirking back now, reaching out a hand to hold Catra’s tightly.

They would get through this mission and be one step closer to ruling the village together, winning the war, and being free.

\-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

It was fully dark now, the halls illuminated by the buzzing and flickering fluorescent lights that hung unevenly from the ceiling, the cable holding them up fraying at the edges. Lonnie had taken the long way coming back from the mess hall, clearing her thoughts for the mission ahead. She usually stuck close to Rogelio and Kyle, using their brief alone time in the halls between tasks for the day to check in. The three had been grappling with blossoming feelings for each other for a while, though none of them dared say it. “Fraternizing'' was strictly prohibited. Once they had started puberty, the genin had a brief lesson on the importance of repressing their feelings for each other and focusing on their loyalty to the village, to the cause. They knew not to talk about, much less acknowledge the feelings they had begun to develop, however they could see in each others’ eyes the connection that they all shared. She was walking by her least favorite office when she heard a conversation. Lonnie had been jealous as a child that she hadn’t been good enough to be the recipient of Shadow Weaver’s attention like Adora was. However, as she grew up and saw the toll that attention took on Adora she became thankful that she wasn’t the chosen one. She had to watch as Catra became more volatile, skittish, and withdrawn and Adora became obsessed with training to the point that she often caused herself physical and emotional damage.

So when Lonnie passed the office and heard the familiar voices she had been intent on ignoring them and continuing on her way to the dorms. 

That changed when she heard a very recognizable voice saying, “Catra won’t be a problem after this mission.”

She froze in the hall, eyes widening in shock and heart skipping a beat. What? What did she mean that Catra ‘wouldn’t be a problem?’

She didn’t dare move, didn’t flex a single muscle and barely took a breath.

“I am confident that Adora will come back from this mission. I am confident that her entire team will return. But, I have omitted some... critical information… that will make success impossible. The mission will fail, and I will blame Adora’s...unhealthy fascination with her pet. Then when they return, bruised and barely alive, I will take Catra to my office for some... disciplinary measures. And she will simply never return. Then we can finally get Adora to focus all of her attention on her training,” Shadow Weaver’s unmistakable voice finished speaking, flippant and uncaring. Lonnie was frozen in the hall, unable to comprehend what she had just heard. She was going to make them fail on purpose? Just so she could get rid of Catra?

Sure, Lonnie and Catra had butt heads more times than she could count, but Catra was a good ninja. Catra was strong mentally and physically and on top of having some of the best taijutsu because of her speed alone she also possessed some impressive ninjutsu. Her kekkei genkai, her birth clan’s cat transformation specialty, was nothing to bat an eye at either. She was fiercely loyal to her team, if only because of her loyalty to Adora. Sure, she could be a little dismissive when it came to orders but she truly knew how to take care of herself and her teammates when it came to training simulations. And because Adora obviously had feelings for her Shadow Weaver was just going to get rid of her? Kill her? Catra didn’t deserve to just be disposed of like a piece of trash.

They had all grown up together, Catra, Adora, Lonnie, Rogelio, and Kyle. Adora obviously had way stronger feelings for Catra than the rest of them, but how long before Shadow Weaver decided that the three of them were distractions too, and not just Catra? If Shadow Weaver had this delusion that Adora was meant for greatness and that emotional attachments like Catra were a distraction so detrimental to her vision that she needed to be disposed of, it was only a matter of time before the rest of them were in jeopardy.

And when the dust settled and Shadow Weaver had what she wanted, the power of the demon locked within the seal on Adora’s stomach, what would happen to Adora? Would she be cast aside as well?

So Lonnie knew what she had to do to protect her partners and her squad mates. But how could she convince the rest of them?

\-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Adora had gone over the plan over and over again in her head. She had assigned roles, evaluated all of her teams strengths and weaknesses, and reassigned roles. She had thought over every possible scenario. She had gone over the list of supplies she had personally requested, as well as the supplies she knew each of her squad would be carrying on their person during the mission. She had spent days studying the file in her free time, and had studied it even more when she couldn’t sleep at night. She was ready for this mission, and she knew they would be successful. The weight of each decision weighed on her already.

So, when she stood in the dorms against the wall opposite the row of beds, she knew she had one last chance to answer any questions and really hammer in her plan for the mission. That is, until Lonnie had walked in the door looking as though she had seen a ghost. 

“Lonnie? Are you alright?” she had said, worry etched on her face. Lonnie simply walked over to her bunk and sat down next to Kyle, with Rogellio standing on the wall at the head of the bunk. On the adjacent bunk was Catra, brows furrowed at the strange behavior of her squad mate. After sitting, Lonnie stared at the floor for a few minutes, brows pinched together in contemplation. After a pause she looked up at Adora and said, “I want to hear the plan one more time.”

Adora nodded and proceeded to go over the plan once more. Seeing Lonnie walk in like that had put everyone on edge as they each listened first to the mission criteria Adora read from the file and the plan she had carefully crafted. Everyone was in agreement that Adora’s plan would work for the mission at hand, and agreed with her plan of escape. She really had worked out every last detail, and based on the mission criteria and the variables present, there wasn’t a single possible scenario left that she hadn’t prepared for. 

Except Lonnie knew that there was. 

Everyone was prepared to call it a night when Lonnie stood up and looked Adora in the eyes for the first time since dinner in the mess hall, saying “We need to talk, all of us. But this isn’t the place. I think everyone should gather extra supplies for the mission. Sneak some extra food, a change of clothes if you can, along with as many shuriken, kunai, tripwire, and anything else you plan to use. We can really talk tomorrow once we enter the Whispering Woods,” Lonnie spoke in a quiet but serious tone, conveying the need for secrecy as well as the seriousness of her request. 

It was silent. Catra’s eyes had glazed over at the strange request, but steeled when she looked up at Lonnie. The two locked eyes and Catra said, “I take it we should bring anything…. That we wouldn’t want to leave behind here? Right?”

Each member of the squad glanced at each other before making eye contact with Lonnie. She nodded, and Adora seeing the ferocity in Lonnie’s eyes and hearing the desperation in her strained voice said, “Alright, we will talk tomorrow, after we are alone.”

\------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

“Be careful,” Shadow Weaver said, standing at the gate to the Horde’s village with a hand on Adora’s shoulder. The hand felt heavy, the pressure a constant threat. The feeling of being touched by the woman’s cold hand shoots a steel dagger through Adora’s heart making it stutter and quicken.

“I will,” Said Adora, knowing from her years of interacting with the woman just how much confidence to put in her voice, along with how much respect. 

“Good. When your squad returns we will conduct an interview with you to discuss the course of the mission as well as the individual evaluations of each squad member,” Shadow Weaver spoke as she squeezed Adora’s shoulder, though whether it was supposed to be a comfort or a threat was lost on the chunin.

Adora nodded and turned wordlessly, making eye contact with each member of her squad before taking off out of the gate and into the barren fields beyond. Behind her was Catra, the fastest, who only remained behind Adora out of courtesy since she could easily overtake her. Catra was followed by Rogelio, using his long legs and reptilian features to propel himself forward. After him was Lonnie, her height a bit of a detriment to her speed, though her physical strength nearly matched Adora’s. At the rear of the group was Kyle, whose slender form could have overtaken Lonnie’s if he hadn’t taken great joy in trailing his two “secret” loves. 

Once they had cleared the field outside of the village boundary and made it far enough into the Whispering Woods that any prying eyes from the village wouldn’t see through the gnarled branches Adora finally stopped. Adora was perched on a thick branch, with Lonnie and Rogelio at the same height on a neighboring tree. One branch above them was Kyle in a crouch, and on another neighboring tree and a few branches below was Catra. All five squad members could see each other clearly and they were all close enough to hear each other at a conversational volume. 

“What is it Lonnie? What….. What happened yesterday that we couldn’t talk about it in the dorm? Are you ok?” Adora turned to look at her friend and squad mate with fear in her eyes and apprehension in her voice, shoulders tense as one hand hung to her side in a fist and the other grasped the trunk of the tree she was standing on hard enough to crack some of the bark around her fingers.

“I am ok. I just…. I overheard something, something everyone should hear,” Lonnie said, an edge to her voice. She sighed and let her head drop, knowing that those words she had heard changed everything. She could have overlooked anything else if not for those words, “Catra won’t be a problem after this mission.” She shivered at the implication behind them. Did Shadow Weaver plan to use her genjutsu to warp Adora’s mind so badly that she couldn’t tell if the memories of her friend were real or not? Did she know some kind of advanced genjutsu that would effectively wipe Catra from her memory? Or did she plan to kill Catra and let Adora think it was her fault? Lonnie couldn’t tell just from the conversation she overheard, but none of those options sounded good. And if Shadow Weaver really had the kind of power she suspected, she didn’t want to find out. 

“I was walking back to the dorms after dinner last night. I took the long way back from the mess hall like I usually do when I need a little extra time to think about the upcoming mission. I heard something from Shadow Weaver, something bad,” Lonnie proceeded to tell them all about what she had overheard. The plan to keep information from them, to let the mission fail, and finally to blame Catra. Lonnie looked into Adora’s eyes when she said “Catra won’t be a problem after this mission.”

Adora’s face went pale, her eyes wide. She looked to Catra, the person in this world who meant the most to her. She didn’t need to speculate what that last sentence meant. 

“W….what? She’s …… She’s just going to kill Catra?” Adora was hyperventilating now, sinking to her knees and tears clouding her vision as she tried to think of her life without Catra, her world without the person she cared for most. Catra was wide eyed but she had a feeling this day would come. Shadow Weaver had always acted like she was worthless, like her days in this world were numbered. She leapt from the branch she was on up to the one where Adora was perched, on her knees barely holding herself up. Catra squatted down to face Adora, putting a hand on the side of her face while the other wrapped around Adora’s waist.

“Adora,” Catra spoke, her voice soothing and measured, “What do you want to do?”

Adora’s eyes snapped up to meet hers, shock evident on her face.

“Catra what the….. What the fuck? She is going to kill you. She wanted you gone so badly that she is going to make us fail the mission. I… I can’t let that happen,” Adora was frantic now.

Catra, managing to keep her composure, looked at her best friend, “Adora… I know how much this mission means to you…. How much your rank means to you…. Its all you have ever wanted. If…. If you want to go through with the mission, we already know Shadow Weaver won’t strip you of your rank or think badly of you…. Maybe it’s better this way. Maybe it’s better if we let this play out the way she wants it to.” Catra choked the words out. 

It was silent. The only sounds were the crickets chirping in the underbrush, but everyone stood shocked and silent as they took in what Catra just said, what she was willing to do to protect her friend.

“NO!” Adora shouted. It was such a shock to hear this expression from their level headed leader that each squad member’s eyes widened and their jaws went slack. 

“I’m not letting them take anyone away from me! I’m not letting them hurt anyone else. They think I’m special because of the demon spirit locked inside me, but how far are they going to go in order to take away my ‘distractions’? How many of the people I care about are they going to erase from my memory to turn me into the person they want me to be? Giving me a mission that they know will fail just to use me like they always planned when all I’ve ever done is show them loyalty beyond reason? There’s…. There’s really nothing I can do to protect you from them is there? They were always going to take you away from me, always planning to beat into my mind that I can’t do anything without them not even protecting the person I love!” She was sobbing, choking on the words, on the realization that nothing she would do would be good enough to save Catra. 

Becoming chunin, going on missions, proving herself and her squad’s loyalty and usefulness to the village, and continuing to work her way up to jonin and maybe even sannin with Catra by her side would prove to Shadow Weaver that they were better with each other than without, that Catra wasn’t some distraction from her destiny. They were going to prove together that the two of them were a force that could turn the tide of the war and Shadow Weaver would realize that Catra was so much more than what she thought of her. Catra was smart and strategic, her taijutsu the best she had ever seen, combined with her use of ninjutsu creating a fighting style so unique that during training she easily bested all of the other genin, even Adora. Catra was brilliant, physically and mentally. There wasn’t any obstacle Catra couldn’t think her way through or around and if she was just given a chance she should have made chunin during this season’s exams. 

She had faced off during stage 3 against Rogelio, beating him. It was Shadow Weaver that had decided that the results of their match were “inconclusive” and didn’t prove that she was ready to be promoted. Adora’s match against Kyle had been a landslide and in Adora’s opinion hadn’t been an impressive win at all. She was physically stronger than him and she had barely used ninjutsu at all. Kyle had at least performed a successful genjutsu, but Adora had already been running head first at him and tackled him through the illusion. He had lost so quickly not because Adora had pulled out an impressive move but because he had expected his genjutsu to throw her off more and was concussed during Adora’s tackle, allowing her to easily grapple him into submission and the proctor declaring Adora the winner. It wasn’t a real win, she just caught him off guard once. She had been paired against someone she had always outmatched and had won, that wasn’t impressive at all. But Catra, she had been paired against someone with an impressive kekkei genkai of their own, with greater physical strength than her and speed that rivaled her own. They’d both fought hard and she had come out on top through her quick thinking and her ability to use her ninjutsu and taijutsu together flawlessly. 

If any of them deserved to be promoted to chunin it was Catra. But Shadow Weaver had always hated her, would always hate her, and promoted only Adora saying that Catra wasn’t good enough to carry more responsibility in the village. 

But now collapsed to her knees on a tree branch during their first mission outside of the village, with Catra kneeling before her and holding her comfortingly she realized she has all she has ever needed. She’s somewhere unfamiliar, but it's quiet. She can hear Catra breathing in front of her, feel her warmth against her skin. She smells the scent she knows to be Catra’s soft fur but can also smell the clean air of the forest and the dew rolling off of the leaves. There’s no smoke, no sulfur smell, no industrial clunking and banging. It's peaceful. She can take a deep breath without her chest tightening with worry and her heart stuttering with the fear that if she relaxed something bad would happen. It was so strange that for the very first time in her life, she felt free almost, even though they were technically in enemy territory on a mission. 

Adora grasped the hand that Catra was using to stroke her cheek and opened her eyes. She stood, pulling Catra up with her and faced the rest of her squad mates.

“The Horde is all we have ever known, and I understand if you all don’t feel like this risk is worth it. I won’t hold it against any of you if you want to go back, because it has always been our home. But…. knowing what they were planning to do, how far they were willing to go to hurt all of us just to get rid of someone they didn’t like, that they were willing to send us into an S ranked mission under the guise of a C ranked recon mission and have us stumble back barely alive, I can’t go back. I’ve given them my loyalty over and over again to try to keep them happy but that was never going to be enough. I can’t go back. I won’t let them use me, manipulate me, guilt me into thinking that the pain you all suffer is my fault anymore. I won’t stop anyone who wants to return from doing so, but I’m not going back,” Adora turned her head to lock eyes with Catra, squeezing her hand.

“I’m not going to stand around and watch them hurt you anymore, and I am so sorry that I ever did. I’m so sorry that it took me this long to realize that they were never going to stop at just discipline. I’m sorry I let this go on for so long. I’m sorry I didn’t see through their lies. All I wanted was to protect you but I didn’t stop to think that I couldn’t protect you from them. Will you leave with me?”

Catra’s eyes softened as a single tear spilled over and rolled down her cheek, letting out the shaky breath she didn’t know she was even holding before saying, “Adora, you don’t have to protect me. You shouldn’t have been made to feel like you had to. You should want to leave because they’re hurting you too. Please tell me you see that. Please tell me that you know you’re worth it too, that you know you didn’t deserve the way they were treating you either.”

“I know. I know they hurt me too. That Shadow Weaver was hurting me. I know I don’t deserve that and I don’t deserve to be made to feel responsible for the torture you went through. I know. I’m still sorry, but I hope we can move past this. I hope we can still…. We can still be happy,” Adora looked more hopeful than she had dared to look in years. 

“Adora, I know how they made you feel and I know how much you wanted to protect me. I’m sorry too, that I didn’t try to tell you how badly I could see you hurting. We were just kids, it wasn’t our fault. None of it was our fault. I wanted more than anything to leave with you all these years and if you’re not going back, neither am I,” The edge of Catra’s mouth curved up and a smile overtook her face.

“Well um…. The rest of us are still here you know? Not to ruin this….. Whatever this is,” Lonnie finally spoke, effectively ruining the moment between the two.. 

Adora and Catra released the hands they had still been holding and blushed, turning to face the squad mates they had been ignoring and confronting their knowing smirks.

Adora’s form went rigid as she reached down to the pouch around her right leg, removed a kunai knife, brought it up to her forehead and dragged it across the Horde symbol on her ninja headband. The metallic shearing sound echoed through the forest as one smooth slash carved its way across the Horde symbol.

The action finalized her decision. She couldn’t go back, not that she would want to. She considered removing the headband and dropping it to the ground, or better yet sneaking back to the village and pinning it to the main gate with the same knife with which she had defaced the insignia. But she decided to keep it on. She was still a shinobi, still a ninja. She wanted every Horde shinobi she saw for the rest of her life to see it and know she had left. She wanted rival villages to see that she was strong enough to fight them if she needed to, but she was no longer bound by the ninja code of her village.

Looking around at her squad mates she expected to see shock but they just looked proud. Wordlessly Catra reached out for Adora’s hand, the one holding the knife. She slid her fingers slowly between Adora’s, unwinding them from where they curled tightly around the knife. Once Adora’s grip was loosened, she spread her own fingers and slipped them between each one of Adora’s making the former Horde shinobi shiver and gasp lightly. Catra’s soft fur brushed the sensitive space where fingers met her palm and her hand slipped into the space between the knife and the warm skin. She curled her hand around the knife, filling Adora’s palm entirely with her own until it was Catra who held the knife and Adora who held Catra’s hand. Tugging her hand away gently, Catra brought the knife to her waist where she wore her headband as a belt, dragging it sharply across the symbol and defacing it in her own act of defiance. 

Immediately she felt her shoulders losen and the tension in her neck uncoil. She breathed her first real sigh of relief since leaving the village.

Lonnie watched the whole ordeal, feeling a little weird about how sensual it seemed. Well, everything between Catra and Adora was sensual, she supposed the weird feeling came from watching it happen this close. It was usually moments, undetectable by the other genin and the higher ranking ninja that taught them. Quick touches followed by the disguise of a playful shove to not give away their feelings. Already, leaving the village was allowing a different form of expression than they had ever been allowed before.

Lonnie looked to Kyle and Rogelio, the three exchanging glances. They all knew that if they went back there would be consequences. They knew Shadow Weaver would be solely focused on them and what they had done wrong to get Adora to leave. But they also knew that there would be a place for them in the Horde if they wanted to go back. But did they?

“Lonnie, Kyle, Rogelio… I would love it if you would come with us. You didn’t deserve the way they treated you either, the way they forced us from such a young age into the lives of soldiers. We all grew up together and I don’t want to leave you behind either. Will you come with us? With me? Will you leave the Horde behind?” Adora reached out her arm.

The three looked at each other and nodded firmly. Once their decision was made and they were all on the same page Lonnie reached out her arm as well, grasping forearms with Adora. One by one they all took out their own knives and slashed through their own headbands, Lonnie’s and Rogellio’s wrapped around their biceps while Kyle’s was tied around his forehead.

“So, what should we do now?” It was Kyle that finally spoke.

“I think we should get a little further from the village. They’ll be sending someone after Adora when she doesn’t return and we want to be further away when that happens. Maybe we can still do a little recon on the towns outside of Brightmoon? Just to get a feel for how they operate and what kind of security they have. Then we can try to get some more supplies. If we don’t run into more trouble we can keep heading out past Brightmoon toward the Crimson Waste. Not that we can rely on any information the Horde had actually given us, but a lawless wasteland with no Rebellion seems like the safest place to try to start a new life, don’t you think?” Catra gave her thoughts. 

Everyone nodded in agreement that scouting out the closer towns and gathering supplies for them to make their way to the Crimson Waste seemed like the best plan. Nobody was going to argue that getting further from their former village was an absolute necessity. Without much further discussion they each took off through the trees in the direction of Brightmoon, with light in their eyes and hope in their hearts, easy smiles forming on their faces as they got further from their old lives and began their new ones.


End file.
